Ransomware hits OKCPS

Oklahoma City Public Schools is in their third day of trying to recover from a ransomware attack on its network that began on Monday morning.

Ransomware is a type of malware that allows an Internet attacker to gain entry to a network and lock it down so that the owner has no access.

The attacker usually demands a large sum of money to unlock the system.

Monday attack

Monday evening, the press and other media began to hear about the attack as preparations were being made for the Board of Education meeting.

The district network was down and no access to the Internet meant there would not be a livestream of proceedings of the Board of Education meeting in the Northeast High School auditorium.

The district referred to the infection of their network at the time as a “malware attack.”

Then, later in the evening, district Media Relations staff sent out the first email.

“This morning our district’s network was significantly compromised by a form of malware. Although our IT Services Team has been hard at work all day, this issue is continuing to worsen.”

The network was completely taken down by 4 p.m. Monday.

Attack continues

The district sharpened their terminology Tuesday in an email to the media using the term “ransomware” to describe the attack.

“OKCPS continues to address the recent ransomware attack. We are grateful to our staff for their flexibility and for continuing to put students first as our IT Services Teams work with our third-party experts to resolve the issue,” said Media Relations Manager Arely Marten in the email.

No interviews

Wednesday afternoon Free Press asked for an interview or a statement from Marten about progress.

She referred us to the statement from Tuesday.

“We will send an update when we have new information to provide,” Marten said in a text message around 2 p.m. Wednesday.

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